This article examines how teacher collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), teacher salaries, and class sizes changed during the Great Recession. Using a district-level data set of California teacher CBAs that includes measures of subarea contract strength and salaries from 2005-2006 and 2011-2012 tied to district-level longitudinal data, we…

This article examines the legal and political significance of teacher unionization in rural and suburban school districts between 1960 and 1975. While most historians focus on the growth of unions in urban areas, strikes in outlying districts played a determinative role in the development of public sector labor law, particularly in the arbitration…

Purpose: This study examines policies set in the collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) negotiated between teachers' unions and school boards and explores what kinds of districts have contract provisions that restrict district administrators, enhance administrative flexibility, and/or improve teachers' professional work lives and that have…

This paper presents the highlights of a conference entitled "Advancing Student Achievement through Labor-Management Collaboration" held in Denver, Colorado last February 15-16, 2011. This first-of-its-kind conference on labor-management collaboration is a historic effort to transform the relationships among local superintendents, school…

There is broad agreement that teacher quality is related to student achievement, but there is far less agreement about the degree to which school districts and administrators are constrained in making policies to improve teacher quality that might also affect teacher employment and working conditions. Conventional wisdom holds that state law and…

Teachers unions are among the most powerful, yet least studied, actors in public education today. Although public attention focuses on the influence of national unions, the policies that most affect teachers and schooling are bargained by local unions and school boards. Interviews with 30 recently elected local union presidents reveal that these…

A substantial amount of school district policy is set in the collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) negotiated between teachers' unions and districts. Although previous studies have assumed that CBA provisions bargained by unions are a primary mechanism connecting union strength to outcomes for teachers and students, research has not yet…

At the request of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) undertook this analysis of the teacher policies in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). A coalition of civil rights groups were also involved in this project, including Parent Organization Network, Families in Schools, Alliance for a…

This study explored the perspectives of 350 California superintendents from various-sized school districts in relation to their ability to support student learning while addressing the numerous and complex personnel, social, and economic challenges faced by schools. Specifically, this study investigated the attitudes and opinions of district…

The ideal and truly mature relationship between teacher unions and school boards and administrators and the public would be a mutuality of individual and organizational goals. (Published by California School Boards Association, 800 9th Street, Suite 201, Sacramento, California 95814) (Author)

The superintendent is the chief advisor to the school board on all matters relating to the meet and confer process, and he acts as the main channel of communication between the school board and the management team and the Certificated Employees Council. (Published by California School Boards Association, 800 9th Street, Suite 201, Sacramento,…

The purpose of this handbook is to give both new and veteran California school board members a guide to the process of collective bargaining. In general, the board's role in collective bargaining is defined as including developing goals, selecting the board's representative, developing parameters, maintaining communications with the public,…

This manual for new and current board members describes school board activities in California. The first of 11 chapters discusses the board's function and the member's role on the board. Chapter 2 touches on government regulation of education under federal and state constitutions and statutes. Chapter 3 introduces the structure of public education…

Based on recent bitter experience, this article tells districts how to prepare for a teacher strike. Administrators should assess their public relations program and the strength of their board, know their adversary (the union) and the bargaining process, asssess the management team, and plan strategically. (MLH)

California school employee unions' objective is the enhancement of wages and hours for their members. School districts and unions need to participate in some form of collaborative (nonadversarial) bargaining. Lists steps a district might follow to handle the negotiations process from an educational point of view; that is, support and enhance…